


Intarsia

by Enchantable



Series: Stitches [5]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Knitting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 19:43:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh has a realization while knitting</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intarsia

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: raleigh doesn't remember this, but he and mako had met before once when yancy was still alive.

Mako likes the sound of the needles as Raleigh knits behind her. 

He’s sitting on the bed guiding the needles with thread the same color as Herc’s old drift armor. Next to him is a print out of a pattern. Raleigh’s made countless things but never a dog sweater before. All of Striker Eureka celebrates the day Max was pulled from the rubble as his birthday and they dont want to show up empty handed. She hears the needles click and then pause, then click again and then stop all together. Frowning she turns to see Raleigh staring at her.

"I remember you," he breathes and she feels her face get hot.

the thing about drifting is that everything comes at you at once. You can’t sift through it without getting sucked in, you just have to let the strongest memories come. Hers are of him now, but he’s caught glimpses of how he was. Sitting there knitting, letting his mind wander, the memory comes before he can stop it. she looks at him calmly and he realizes she’s known all along.

"You were in the Marshall’s office," he looks indignant for a moment, "you laughed at me."

"Your excuse was funny," she says lightly and turns back to the paperwork. 

It was a very long time ago and she knows on bad days he likes to pretend that part of his life never happened. On good days he likes to just push the memories aside. It was part of Sensei’s attempt to convince her that being a pilot wasn’t what she wanted. He took her to the coldest Shatterdome and let her sit in his office while he did the unclassified things.

like berating the two hot shot pilots who took stupid risks and kept dinging up their Jaeger.

it had been difficult to follow the conversation, she was still grasping the language and culture. He ordered them to stop treating their Jaeger like it was their joyride. She had been trying to sink into the wall but Raleigh had looked right at her and winked before saying to Sensei that they would never treat Gipsy as a joyride, there were no pretty girls in it.

She had laughed before she could stop it. 

Raleigh shakes his head, disbelieving that he didn’t remember her before. He thought her disapproval of him was purely because of his records. But if she had been in Alaska back them he could see why she definitely thought he wasn’t the right man for the mission. Setting his needles to the side, Max’s half finished sweater dangling from them, he closes the distance between them and wraps his arms around her.

she leans back as his chin settles on her shoulder, letting his warmth seep through her. The physical contact is something they both crave. She still finds herself getting used to Raleigh sometimes. Now that the iron grip of war and grief is slowly relaxing. He’s more playful, he smiles more. She finds herself doing that too, the open wound of vengeance slowly healing. 

"You were like a shadow," he says, his chest vibrating against her spine.

"I was supposed to be invisible," she says and he smiles against her skin. 

"That’s impossible," he says pressing a soft kiss to her neck. 

"Only to you," she tells him in Japanese. 

"Especially to me," he corrects as she turns her head and gently presses their mouths together. 

He kisses her sweetly, an unnecessary apology without words. She turns into the kiss, parting her lips as his tongue slides into her mouth. when they separate he pulls her up and she gathers her papers, coming to the bed with him. They settle against each other, bodies warm and tangled as he resumes knitting and she resumes working on her papers. 

She feels his eyes on her and turns, looking up at him as he chuckles low in his throat. She shoots him a curious look and he smiles.

"I guess that excuse didn’t work after all," he says thoughtfully, "I did bring a pretty girl into my Jaeger."

"Our Jaeger," she corrects and smiles at him, "you dinged her up pretty bad too."

He laughs at that and she finds herself pulled in before he kisses her again. 

Neither gets much work done.


End file.
